Southern Research Station

Title: Effects of Sample Selection on Estimates of Economic Impacts of Outdoor Recreation

Author: English, Donald B.K.

Date: 1997

Source: The Review of Regional Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, Winter 1997

Description: Estimates of the economic impacts of recreation often come from spending data provided by a self-selected subset of a random sample of site visitors. The subset is frequently less than half the onsite sample. Biased vectors of per trip spending and impact estimates can result if self-selection is related to spending pattctns, and proper corrective procedures arc not employed. This paper shows a method for accounting for both sample selection and the censored nature of reported expenditures, via a Tobit model with sample selection. Results from a sample of visitors to Cumberland Island National Seashore indicate a naive (uncorrected) approach overestimates per trip visitor spending by 15 percent and economic impacts to industrial output by 10 percent.

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Citation

English, Donald B.K.  1997.  Effects of Sample Selection on Estimates of Economic Impacts of Outdoor Recreation.   The Review of Regional Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, Winter 1997